Design and Fabrication of Double-Layer Curved Compound Eye via Two-Photon Polymerization

A kind of double-layer curved compound eye (DLCCE) inspired by natural compound eye was developed and fabricated in two-photon polymerization (TPP) technology to solve the existing problems, such as defocus at the edge, hard to miniaturize, assemble and detect. For each ommatidium, a corresponding modified microlens was designed to refract and focus the incident rays on the photoelectric detector. The diameter of the complete compound eye is 47.9 μm. It is integrated by 33 ommatidia with a diameter of 3.9 μm and possesses a theoretical FOV angle of 85°. What's more, extra supports and through-holes were designed to promote to develop the unpolymerized photoresist within the fabricated structure. An imaging experiment was conducted to demonstrate the validity of developed compound eye comparing with the single-layer one. This work was expected to promote compound eyes to be applied in more imaging and sensing fields of microvision for their miniaturization, integration and optimization of optical system.